The Mirror
by Vickie Wu
Summary: Years after Jonas and Gabriel escaped out from their dystopia community, Gabriel was already twelve, and he decided to go back his hometown to know more about himself. On the way to the place where he thought that was his town, he met Margo and got shock by her words. Inspired by the unique girl, he kept going on his journey...
1. Chapter 1

That was a cloudy day, in which I stepped into the town with the chill wind breezing. Suddenly, a piece of small sheet falling down in the air, and I picked it up out of curiosity. "Maybe the paper would bring me something different on this twelfth day since I began the venture!" murmured I.

It was the day after my 12th birthday that I determined to find the "wonderland" of mine. On the very day, I went to school at eight o'clock as usual.

"Hey! Happy birthday!", yelled some classmates.

"Thanks," said I with a shallow smile.

"Oh! Today is your birthday? Happy birthday, Gabriel!", said another boy.

"No. It was on yesterday. Thanks anyway." I also sent him a smile but still with no feeling in my mind.

Greeting to every classmate I met, I took my seat and put my pencil box on the left of the desk. Staring at the brooch which was given from Jonas, I recalling every detail on my birthday.

"Oh dear! Happy birthday!", said the vice mayor in the village, who was one of Jonas' friends. She hugged me and grinned.

"Thank you," responded I with a smile on my face. Even though I knew that I should say more to that significant person, those two words were what I could only speak out then.

"I'm so glad to see you, Mrs. Barren. Please be at ease and enjoy the party." Jonas greeted her and shook hands with her.

Jonas then told me that since the first year he escaped from the community with me, an infant, Mrs. Barren had given a hand to us. I cast my eyes on the woman striding away with a glass of wine in her hand, observing every move she made.

Suddenly, a cluster of colorful balloons appeared in front of me. They were huge enough to hide the people behind them. "Hey! You must like it, right?" Three naughty boys, actually my friends, moved the balloons aside and extended their necks out. "Yeah. Thanks bros," the words ran out of my mouth as I laughed at their amusing facial expression.

Not waiting for me to say more, they just dashed to the long tables devouring the refreshments on them. On the tables were not only the desserts brought by the guests but Jonas' specialty, apple pie. As the scent filling the room, I could only stand next to Jonas and smiled to the visitors or his friends after they finished talking and finally put their sight on me. The joy gradually ran off my mind with a sense of emptiness emerging more and more strongly, but the smile on my face was just like what it used to be, such brilliant and vigorous.

"Come here, Gabriel! See what's for you!" Abruptly awaking me from numbness, Jonas stepped toward his room and showed me a gesture of following. Opening his drawer, Jonas gave me an apple-shape brooch. It was half black and half red, with small white 12 on the middle of it. That was really a gift out of my imagination. I stared at it for seconds and showed my gratitude by hugging him, then putting it on my pencil box, which I would bring it wherever I went.

Touching the brooch to and fro and taking a deep breath in front of my desk, I was ready for the whole new day. The day was full of boring courses as it usually did; however, I changed my mind upon the geography class beginning.

On the geography class, we learned about different types of maps and the information of them. I was pretty excited when I first knew what we were going to learn in that class, for reading maps and venturing to somewhere on them was one of my interests. The teacher asked each student to point out their hometown on the map hung on the board. We rushed toward it, just like numerous starving rats dashing to a piece of enticing cheese. Most of the classmates raced in front of the map and dotted on it without hesitation. However, scarcely had I been about to put a red dot on the village I lived when a lightning emerged in my brain. I stood still, meditating, "Where is my hometown, the community or the village?"

"Come on! Don't you know where is it located?" a girl patted me on my shoulder then pranced back her seat.

I didn't respond but quickly mark the village and went back. During the following class, I stared in space almost all the time.

On the way home, I still recalled what had happened in class. "Where the community really is?" That question kept echoing in my mind. I sprinted to Jonas room at the moment I entered the house, desiring of asking him about the location of the community. Nevertheless, as I stopped breathlessly by the door of his room, what I saw was not Jonas but an atlas lying on his desk. I was curious and decided to take and read it, wondering whether there were some clues for the community or not. I viewed over every dot, line, and also every tiny words on it slowly and carefully, but I found nothing seemed to be marked as our community. Feeling frustrated, I sagged back in his chair, which was soft and flexible, and puzzled over where might be its site. Perplexed, I took up a mirror on the desk randomly and turned it at will without consciousness. All at once, I glimpsed a subtle dot on the map sparking for just a split second then disappeared. I was astonished, deciding to seek for the atom attentively on the map again.

I held my breath, staring at every inch of the map with the mirror being whirled in my hand. Strangely, the dot sparked again and again, and the frequency of its "emergence" seemed to have something to do with the speed I revolved the mirror. I tried to adjust the direction of the mirror slowly and discreetly, and didn't stop until the atom showed up. I kept observing the subtle dot, which seemed may disappeared at every moment, and found there was no name or note about it. "It must be the community." a voice suddenly came out from my mind. I look fixedly at the dot for a while, and eventually made up my mind to venture there, my real hometown.


	2. Chapter 2

On the early morning, I left a note for Jonas and then went out home with the backpack I had prepared. Closing the door, I stood still in front of the house where I had lived for 12 years, and I viewed all over the house as if that would be the last time I turned back. I hold the atlas tightly in my sweating hands, and walked on my venture.

According to the map, I had to take a train to Orlando first. I stepped on the train and took my seat, secretly observing the surrounding people. Some of them were in formal suit, and some were dressed in casual clothes and chatted with their friends. However, there was no child alone just like me. Bored, I took out the map and tried to figure out where to go after got off the train. However, I could hardly focus on it since I felt ill at ease. "Are they looking at me? They must wonder why there's a pity boy taking the train without his parents. Please ignore me…" those panic voices haunted my mind, which nearly suffocated me. Trying to get rid of that terrible feeling, I move my sight on the scene outside the window but that didn't work. Therefore, I adopted the best solution; that is, to sleep, and to feel nothing

When the train finally arrived in Orlando, I jumped down my seat and got down the train as soon as I could. My heart was beating furiously as I went away the station and truly walked into the city, for that was the first time I went out to so distant a place without Jonas. I walked at a low speed and checked on the map constantly, viewing stores and constructions along the street at the same time. There was hustle and bustle, and it was totally different from the village I lived.

I kept walking, but my pace became faster and faster. The strange glance cast by the people who passed me turned into roaring waves which gradually washed away my mind. "Again! That horrid feeling," thought I.

Not knowing how long I had walked, the scene nearby me was no longer high buildings and colorful stores and there was not that noisy as before. Beside the street were a few grey departments, and it seemed to be the residential area. I put the map into the backpack and strolled there with curiosity. Suddenly, I noticed that there was a narrow path between two of the houses. The path was so long that it seemed to be endless, and on the both sides of it grew clusters of moss. Hesitating for a while, I pluck up my courage and walked into it with my heart in my mouth.

The sound around me became subtle and subtle, and finally, all I could hear were the wind breezing and my heart beating. I kept stepping forward, taking heed of the surroundings with the feeling of fear emerging bit by bit. I wondered where the path would extend, what would I meet, who would live there… All the questions faded away as I eventually noticed a worn wooden board lying beside a banyan, and there were some words, which was too blurred to be told, carved on it.

I guessed that was another town. I wandered there, but strangely, I met no one and could not hear sounds seemed to be made by human beings. The buildings there were old and full of dust, so that I assumed that it was abandoned. However, no sooner had I been about to turned back and left than I noticed a vehicle parked outside a building. The vehicle became disharmonious in that gloomy scene, which aroused my curiosity.

I went toward the single-story building, and found the door was unlocked. Hesitated for a while, I pushed the door slightly and tiptoed into it with the musty smell overwhelming me. Inside the building was dim so that I turned on my flashlight, casting the light prudently. There was subtle sound from farther place, and I followed it and stopped as I arrived the room. Turning off the flashlight and stood by the door observing quietly, I felt there were butterflies in my stomach. As I gradually adapted to the darkness, I saw there was a person, actually a female, doing something on the wall in the room. My hands sweated again as I stood still by the door of the room, and my brain was all blank. I just kept "watching" it as if there were a suspense movie filming in front of me. However, my nonstop staring seemed bothered the "leading actress."

"Who's there?" said the female as she abruptly turned back and beheld me. She was such a young and beautiful lady who seemed to be a college student.

"Hey, little boy! Why are you here?" asked her in a softer tone.

"Um…I…I just curious…", stuttered I and I walked toward her slowly and hesitantly. Just when I approached her, I noticed that there was a can of red paint with a brush in it and that some words written on the wall.

YOU WILL GO TO THE PAPER TOWNS

AND YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK


	3. Chapter 3

I asked Margo about the meaning of the words, but she just sent me a smile which contained a message— "You cannot understand". She didn't answer my question but inquired of my appearance and my name as well. Knowing that I began my venture on the next day of my birthday, the lady, who said her name was Margo, became silent for a while and uttered calmly, "I don't like to celebrate my birthday at all."

Margo continued, "Every birthday, many people would come to my house to join the party and give blessing to me. But I felt that most of them just wanted to 'do their obligation' as being a person who was kind enough to bless me. I am enough of the fucking fake people and life in that paper town!"

I listened and recalled the memory on my birthday, and found out what she said surprisingly matched my feeling entirely. Margo kept stating that she was on her journey to find and live in the world where she didn't need to care about others and she could be her real self. She also said to me that "Succumb to the world is not the only way to live. We can find the ideal world or just create our own world!"

I followed Margo and left the building. Before we parted ways, Margo locked the door of the building and fixed a broad over the entrance. She started the engine, yelling "Fighting! Do not submit!" as she drove away. I stood still, viewing her car getting smaller and smaller then finally disappeared. Not knowing how long I zoned out, I awakened from shock and determined to achieve the mission of the venture. Meditating the dream-like experience, I kept forwarding on the route shown on the atlas.

It was on the way to my "hometown" that I imagined how different it would be. Even though there was once an under-control community where the residents did not have real feeling and freedom, I still believed that it had turned into a warm and colorful town after Jonas escaped from there and released all the memories and histories of the community to all the residents.

In the following days of the venture, I met few people and the animals, either. All that accompanied me were my perseverance and the image of my hometown which got more and more splendid with the words from Margo repeating again and again. I visualized that I would meet my parents or some relatives there and owned a complete family just like most people did, dreaming about that people there were all kindhearted and sincere, not paper-like, so that I could make lots of "real" friends and warm my heart…Relying on those fantasy, I conquered all the challenges I encountered, and the distance I passed in a day got longer than the previous one. Day by day, I could feel that the more I approached the determination, the more hopeful I became.

Finally, on the twelfth day of my venture, some structures far away from me came into sight. Under that cloudy day, I speeded up my pace forwarding with my heart beating crazily. I just felt like finding out a cave full of treasure! Getting all up tight, I stepped into the town with the chill wind breezing. The first house was large and white, but it was vacant; the second one contained no people…As I progressed slowly, the tranquil atmosphere brought me a familiar feeling. Suddenly, piece of small sheet falling down in the air, and I picked it up out of curiosity.

THIS IS A PAPER TOWN

I froze for a moment, and it was not until the next second that I realized that all my fantasy came to naught eventually. Here was not my hometown but a county made deliberately to mislead people, especially their enemy.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! I am a fool who takes this fake town as a treasure! Whatever! Now I'm the only one in this brand new world, and I will no longer be the strange one!"

I heard my ecstatic laughter faded in the wind.


End file.
